The following is an opinion piece by Liberty Speaks.

Well it’s now 2020, and I need to get some things off my chest regarding President Donald J. Trump.  Start the year fresh, so to speak.

November 2016 was the beginning of an Armageddon of sorts starting with the political earthquake on election night that virtually no one had predicted.  Metaphorically, I’d say that puppy easily rocked a magnitude 9.3 throughout D. C. and beyond.  The aftershocks sent half the country into a frenzy en masse and every pundit or Joe Blow with a press pass acted like they were auditioning for the Prozac poster child of the week.  Trump’s victory was a 70s Irwin Allen apocalyptic disaster movie on a loop with no pause button.

It was sometime in the spring of 2017 even I was screaming ‘where’s the brakes to this thing, I want off this Trump train wreck!’  The residual effects of the Apocalypse had spawned an epiphany.  Trump, is in fact, a complete @#$%.

I felt like a hungover drunk standing up at an AA meeting having to introduce myself, “Hi I’m Liberty and I’m Trump voter.”  “Hi, Liberty!” I’d hear in unison, then mope back over to my chair and listen to the next guy up.   I had other opinions as well, so let me channel my inner Dennis Miller and say “I don’t mean to go off on a rant, but…”

Trump has thrown Presidential decorum out the window like he’s summoning the ghost of 1973s Keith Richards tossing a TV from a Hyatt hotel room.  Every preconception we have ever had on how a CIC should act has come crashing down quicker than a Vegas Casino on demolition day.  I’ve seen Bumble Balls in the dog pens at Pet Smart with more predictability than this guy.

He has the political savvy of some random Bubba outside Joe’s crab shack on a tractor, holding a six-pack of Pabst and a chainsaw yelling “Hey, watch this!”.   (It never ends well, but you still watch it.)  POTUS is so uncouth he makes Cousin Eddie from Lampoon’s Vacation look like a Judith Martin “Miss Manners” Etiquette bot.  There have been so many facepalm moments, that Maybelline is gonna have to come out with an industrial size Spackle bucket of makeup just to cover the forehead bruise.  Make mine a light beige, please.

Don’t even get me started about his Twitter habit.  I think his Secret Service detail really should stage an intervention. I mean come on, his 4 am Tweet storms read like a Muppet on crack after a weekend Netflix binge of The West Wing and Mean Girls.

Just signed another great bill, without the help of Statler and Waldorf. very low energy those two and crazy miss piggy.  I’m not saying she looks like a pig, well maybe some people who I wont name may think so.  I’m sure Kermit thinks shes very nice #MAGA Winning

<facepalm>

So this is what I figured was going to happen.  The Donald was going to screw things up so badly that the Republicans would carry the torches while the Democrats wielded pitchforks down the Capitol steps and into the Oval to run him out of office.  Problem solved and hello President Pence.

I know, dramatic, but hey that’s my opinion, I could be wrong.

Well, that didn’t and hasn’t happened, but something a little more interesting did and it had nothing to do with my epiphany or POTUS.

I made a career change and it sure as hell had some residual effects of its own. My focus needed to be on my career and family.  I quickly realized that the Orange colored Anti/Pro-Trump lenses I had been wearing just weren’t allowing me to recognize the things that directly affected those two dynamics.

I found myself not having time to hang on every blurb of Libs did this, Cons did that, the world is going hell and OMG to you see what the @#$% did today?

My routine of binging cable news, surfing Twitter, and breathing in every pocket of political hot air morphed into work, go home, grab a beer, watch Supernatural, go to bed, rinse and repeat.

My social media presence went from overdrive to underwhelming in a matter of a year and I even managed to multi-task my blogging into damn near non-existence.

Something funny happened along the way.  I stopped paying attention to the man and started paying attention to his policies instead. It all began with a Christmas Bonus I got in 2017.  Something I hadn’t received in maybe 20 years and wouldn’t have, if not for the tax cuts he signed into law and deregulation’s that benefited the small business I worked for.

It was just that simple.

I soon began hearing optimism again in my parents voices regarding their retirements.  My closest friends were finally getting good-paying jobs, raises, and I was on track to further my career as well.  I was hearing more and more people in my community talk about expanding their own businesses, buying new equipment, and hiring more employees.  All of this is a direct result of deregulation and the Trump Economy.

What I wasn’t hearing about from these people was the topic of Russian collusion, impeachment, or general complaints that the country is doomed and the words “existential threat” were not being muttered at all.

If anything, what I was hearing was approval for what POTUS has been doing.  That’s important because I live in a bluer than blue state and one would think that the majority of people here would be ready with pitchforks of their own.  That just hasn’t been the case with the interactions (and yes, a little eavesdropping in grocery lines) I have had or listened to.  The consensus has been “things are getting done” and it’s reminded me of James Carville’s “the economy, stupid” on more than a few occasions.

Besides the economy, there have been other legislative actions tackled that previous administrations over twenty years had only promised or talked about doing but never acted on.  All with bi-partisan support and passed by overwhelming majorities.

So I’ll give credit where it’s due.

• Where the 1994 Crime bill failed our criminal justice system, the beginning of real reform was achieved with the First Step Act.
• The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund became permanent and not something to barter with every legislative session placing our first responders in life threatening limbo.
• The much anticipated Right to Try which gives terminally ill patients access to experimental therapies finally came to fruition.
• The  Mission Act of 2018 designed to give our Veterans greater community care and allows them to seek private medical care outside of the VA became law.
• The Support for Patients and Communities Act to address and combat the opioid crisis was passed. (Though some of the CDC prescribing guidelines are concerning, I’ll reserve that topic for later discussion.)
• Finally, and it was a long time coming, the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 became reality. It recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced the intent to relocate our US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  In 2017 it was reaffirmed by Proclamation and in 2018 the new United States Embassy was opened.

I’d say the administration has done some really good work and for those not hyper focused on the 24/7 Trumpster fires burning on cable news and social media, those accomplishments haven’t gone unnoticed. Perhaps it’s those very fires that distracted the detractors just long enough for the administration to get things done.

Now I’d be remiss if I said I didn’t have serious concerns about larger issues and I do pay attention to them.  Trumps personality and junk yard dog tactics factor in greatly regarding our position on the global stage.  The recent kicking of a massive hornets nest in the Middle East is just the latest in many “I can’t believe he actually did that” foreign policy moments, and yes facepalms.  It’s probably the biggest gamble he’s taken so far, and until we know the ramifications, I’ll hold off really getting into the weeds with the particular topic.

I’m praying his administration is up to the task of protecting our troops, our interests and swiftly dealing with what ever comes our way in the next eleven months.  It’s proven to me it’s more than capable of getting the job done domestically, so now its time to see if it’s foreign policy long game is every bit as good.

Bottom line with all this?  I don’t like POTUS, I don’t like his personality, and I am NOT one of his supporters. I can admit I voted for him out of frustration with the status quo, but I can also admit my family and career are way better off than they were in 2017 because of his administration and policies.

Now I can rant and rage about every little thing he does wrong, and scream at the top of my lungs in the middle of the street that Trump is a complete @#$%, but I can also admit things he’s done right. So for now, I’ll give credit where it’s due and as I said, it’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Thank Doug Ross @ Journal for linking